Need help planning a garden for a wet area

14 years ago

Hi All! I am an intermediate gardener I guess. I have three gardens I just adore, I learned how to garden in upstate NY and now live in GA. I don't know much about southern plants. I have a wet area at the end of my septic field and everyone's best suggestion is for me to find some plants who will enjoy the wetness. It's in the middle of my side yard, with nothing near it. I have beds full of daylilies, red canna, louisiana iris, fringeflower bushes, butterfly bushes, and bee balm, but I promise none of those beds get a lot of water. Can anyone suggest a few plants that would have some nice colors for my "wet garden"? I have tried very hard to plan my other gardens to have something blooming from spring to fall, I love living in the south! I would love to have that in the wet garden too, but have no idea if I could. Thanks for any advice you can offer :)

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Comments (5)

girlgroupgirl
14 years ago
There are some lovely plants for moist areas of the garden. I'll be speaking Monday morning at the Decatur Public library on the topics of both wet and dry gardens.
Recommended plants for septic fields are those that are easy to remove if necessary (so, shallower rooted). There is the beautiful blue virginia iris (also helps to naturally clean the soil), acorus - a grassy lime green leaved plant, a small shrub like the dwarf itea (do not use the large!), ajuga makes a super groundcover, blue and red lobelia (cardinalis), pink milkweed, marshmallow, culivers root, joe pye weed (along the edges, it's tall, so is culivers root so they need to go to the back)....
Lots of lovely plants.
Iris GW
14 years ago
Do you want perennials or would you like some shrub suggestions too?

Great suggestions by ggg on some native perennials there - cardinal flower and the great blue lobelia, culver's root (we had some at the sale today), joe pye weed, you could do the native impatiens (known as jewel weed), buttonbush (shrub), viburnum nudum (shrub), winterberry (deciduous holly shrub), 'little henry' itea (as mentioned by ggg), swamp dogwood (shrub), turtlehead (chelone). Lots of choices!
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karyl7b
14 years ago
and don't forget Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia). Clethra is
shallow rooted plus amazingly fragrant. 'Sixteen Candles' stays fairly small.

Joe pye weed is a favorite of mine.
vroomp
14 years ago
Lizardtail (Saururus cernuus) and Marsh/Swamp Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) both do well for me in a side drainage ditch between houses. The Lizardtails can spread but, are easily controlled with the lawnmower when they creep up the side. They can be contained with 6" deep edging as well. I have even cut the bottoms from large (7-15 gal.) pots and buried them with 2" above the soil to contain other invasive type plants so they stay put. Mulch kills the top 2 inches. This works well for things like Horsetail (Equisetum) as well although, you may get an occasional sprout outside the contained area with these.
Stellabee
14 years ago
If you're interested in an edible that is also kind of pretty, taro a.k.a. elephant ear likes a lot of water. I've heard it can be invasive and needs to be watched though...